WB: State-level arithmetic competition

Kolkata, Apr 19: To motivate young minds and energise their competitive attitude in arithmetics, Genius Ababcus Kids Pvt Ltd will organise the Third West Bengal State-level Mental Arithmetic Competition here tomorrow.

Speaking at a press meet here yesterday, Genius Abacus Kids Pvt Ltd Director(Operations) N Anand said, ''About 1,500 children from all over the state, aged between four and 13, will participate in this competition broadly categorised under three different age groups.'' He said that 30 champions will be selected to represent West Bengal in the forthcoming national arithmetic competition to be held at Chennai. Speaking on the initiative taken up by his organisation, Mr Anand said, ''UCMAS (Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System), a Malayasia-based ISO certified organisation, having its head office in Kuala Lumpur, operates in more than 34 countries worldwide.

''The syllabus is based on Zhusuan methodology and approved by premier authorities such as the World Abacus And Mental Arithmetic Association (WAAMA),'' he said.

He claimed that the UCMAS was an overall brain development programme meant for children in the age group of five to 13 years, which developed latent skills in children like concentration, memory power, speed and accuracy, self confidence and time management, using the Chinese tool ''Abacus''.

He said this two-and-half-year programme, divided into 10 levels, each for a minimum period of three months and classes being conducted once every week for two hours, is aimed at exploring the full potential of the human brain during learning, storing information and recalling it in a flash.

UNI